Bright spots in Birkenhead regeneration: bringing Eastfloat back to life

Collective efforts to regenerate the Birkenhead area are a long time in the making and have been hard-fought. Project overruns and intense scrutiny over the use of public funds have cast a long shadow, but we have entered 2026 amid an undeniably bright spot of positive progress, writes Sebastian Gardiner of Peel Ports Logistics.

Breakthroughs on the investments involved aren’t always visible to the naked eye, at least not to begin with. As many people will appreciate, major infrastructure projects typically take years of consultations, negotiations and planning before a spade ever hits the ground. The sight of the Woodside ferry’s landing stage and linkspan being installed in recent weeks will have been a boost for locals eagerly awaiting signs of momentum.

That development is just one strand of Wirral Council’s major investment as part of the Mersey Ferries strategy. That will also see a new ferry set sail this year – aptly named the Royal Daffodil, evoking springtime images of rebirth and growth.

Blazing a trail

In her autumn statement in November, Chancellor Rachel Reeves named Birkenhead as one of the UK’s ‘trailblazer neighbourhoods’ set to receive millions of pounds in investment over the next decade for community-led regeneration, which will directly support the council’s Birkenhead 2040 plans.

While these are great gains, public money can only go so far on its own. If the UK’s towns and cities are to seize the opportunities before them and become world-class places to live, work, study and visit, the allocation of public funds must be met by substantial investment from the private sector.

The maritime sector is a leading example of how this can be done well and couldn’t be more relevant to the Birkenhead area. In the Liverpool City Region, it is worth at least £5bn to the UK economy, and for every job created in the UK’s maritime sector, six more jobs are supported in the wider supply chain, often within local supply chains. It’s a no-brainer that maritime should be central to Birkenhead’s regeneration plans.

We recently announced plans to revitalise Birkenhead Port’s Eastfloat Terminal through a £10m redevelopment, further solidifying the area’s place in the delivery of the country’s critical maritime and logistics infrastructure.

Bringing Eastfloat back to life

The terminal is being completely redeveloped, creating around 460,000 sq ft of storage capacity, indoor and outdoor. The works will completely overhaul the site’s warehousing and cargo-handling facilities, making it fit for the modern era.

The upgraded facility will be able to handle a diverse range of cargoes, from steel to timber, project cargo to containerised cargo, and animal feed to offshore renewables equipment. Dedicated on-site support from Peel Ports Logistics will also be available from vessel chartering right through to final delivery by road.

We are not only restoring the Eastfloat terminal’s heritage: we are transforming it into a vibrant, modern logistics hub, one that will serve the local and national supply chain for many years to come.

The Mersey maritime sector has been firmly at the heart of UK trade for centuries, and restoring Eastfloat will allow us to keep meeting the demands of the most complex and challenging cargo movements, while bringing trade volume and jobs to the area. We are proud that Eastfloat will make up just one piece of the vast puzzle that is Birkenhead’s ongoing regeneration, in a genuine partnership commitment to regeneration between community and the public and private sectors.

• Sebastian Gardiner is managing director of Peel Ports Logistics. Birkenhead’s Eastfloat terminal is now under the ownership of Peel Ports Group and will continue to be operated by Peel Ports Logistics. The initial redevelopment works are expected to be completed by the end of 2030, with the site remaining operational during the works.
• For more information and to discuss opportunities at The Port of Birkenhead, Eastfloat, contact [email protected]